Miguel Pereira, Brazil, May 26, 2018 – Brazilian domination on the sand courts of the Miguel Pereira one-star event on the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour continued through Saturday’s men’s single elimination rounds and resulted in an all-Brazilian line-up for Sunday’s semifinals. The last time this happened on the Tour was way back in 2007 in Espinho.
One of the berths in the gold medal match will be contested by Vinicius Rezende Costa Freitas and Luciano Ferreira de Paula, who came into the main draw from Thursday’s qualifications, and by sixth-seeded Ramon Ferreira Gomes and Alvaro Marcelino Santos Andrade. In the other semifinal, qualifiers Felipe Cavazin Numasawa and Vinicius Gomes Cardoso de Araujo will take on tenth-seeded wild cards Rodrigo Vieira Bernat and Harley Marques Silva.
Out of the four semifinalists, only Bernat and Harley needed to play two matches on Saturday. In the first single elimination round, they hammered out a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) win over Edgardo Cuello and Yhan Cuesta of Colombia. In the quarterfinals, they battled for a 2-1 (21-19, 12-21, 16-14) victory over fellow Brazilians Oscar Brandao and Leonardo Gomes.
The other three teams had already qualified for the quarterfinals as pool winners. And the duels for the spots in the semifinals were extended to tie-breaker sets. Numasawa and Vinicius needed 60 minutes to dispose of Joalisson Laurindo Gomes and Eduardo Davi Marinho da Rocha with a 2-1 (21-16, 18-21, 15-13) nail-biter. Ramon Gomes and Alvaro mastered a come-from-behind 2-1 (17-21, 28-26, 15-12) win over compatriots Thiago Santos Barbosa and Marcus Borlini De Oliveira in 59 minutes. The only non-Brazilian team in the quarters, third-seeded Austrians Joerg Wutzl and Simon Fruehbauer, put up a 55-minute fight, but eventually lost 2-1 (17-21, 22-20, 15-13) to Vinicius and Luciano.